Episode 66 - Garden State

Strap on your helmets (and your garbage bags) for a review of
Zach Braff's zany but somber-seeming directorial debut, "Garden
State." It's got everything you could ever want in a movie:
paraplegics drowning in bathtubs, humping dogs, diplomas on
ceilings and Sheldon from "The Big Bang Theory."


Zach Braff plays Andrew "Large" Largeman, a twenty-something
struggling actor who has been rendered emotionless after a
lifetime of taking psychiatric medications following an incident
where he shoved his mother and inadvertently paralyzed her from
the waist down (that old chestnut). Large must return home for
the first time in a decade when he finds out that his mom died.
Once home, he goes cold turkey off his meds and starts staring
into the infinite abyss known as life or something.


Natalie Portman plays Samantha, a hamster-murdering former figure
skater who claims to have epilepsy, but it's unclear if anything
we learn about her is remotely true given that she's a
pathological liar. Also, all of her physical and emotional
problems seem to magically disappear as soon she falls in love
with Zach Braff's equally damaged character.


Peter Sarsgaard plays Mark, a pathetic gravedigger who still acts
like he's in high school and lives at home with his mommy (played
by Jean Smart). After Mark robs Large's mother's grave, we're
supposed to forgive him because he takes us on a bizarre
scavenger hunt involving shoplifting, visiting a hooker lair and
bartering with some creepy weirdo who collects dead people's
jewelry.


Ian Holm (a.k.a. Bilbo Baggins) plays Dr. Gideon Largeman,
Andrew's cold and creepy psychiatrist father who has no
professional ethics and has been writing all sorts of
prescriptions for his son for the past decade despite the fact
that they have little to no contact.


Join us as we discuss our difficulties at the gas pump, wonder if
this movie's anti-pharmaceutical message is connected to
Scientology and go back in time to prevent Keating's younger self
from ever liking this movie.


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shooting us an email over at mailbag@filmsnuff.com.


This episode is sponsored by Turbo Extreme Titanium Gym. 


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